October target for U.S. 278 widening

U.S. 278 widening has been delayed by environmental and design issues, but bidding should be complete by August, a S.C. Department of Transportation official said Monday.

"It takes a couple of months to analyze the bids, so construction should start in October," DOT Project Manager John D. Boylston told the Beaufort County Council.

Local concerns about stormwater runoff into the Okatie River and the aesthetics of a concrete barrier have delayed the project, council Chairman Weston Newton said.

"We have to take ownership for the delay," Newton said.

Boylston said a "closed-drainage system" will be employed on the U.S. 278 bridge over the Okatie River headwaters. "We have to contain and treat stormwater before it goes into the Okatie River," he said. "That's a condition of permit approval" by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Boylston said such stormwater systems probably soon will become a required practice on coastal highway bridges.

The highway department official said he and Rob McFee, director of the county Engineering and Infrastructure Division, are working on the design of a concrete barrier between opposing lanes of traffic as well as the design of left turn access from U.S. 278 to S.C. 170.

U.S. 278 will be widened from four to six lanes from Simmonsville Road to S.C. 170 with money from a penny sales tax approved by Beaufort County voters in 2006, which match federal highway funds.

Cost of the U.S. 278 project was estimated at about $20 million more than two years ago, "but that's an old number," McFee said.

"We should have an updated estimate in May or June," Boylston said.

Councilman Jerry Stewart asked Boylston about improvements to S.C. 170, which have been delayed revenue shortages in sales taxes and development fees caused by the current recession and by design issues with the town of Bluffton.

Funding for the S.C. 170 project depends on the cost of the U.S. 278 widening, Boylston said.

"We will have a better idea when the contract for 278 is let," he said.

J. Craig Forrest, DOT commissioner from the 2nd Congressional District, said the federal funds for S.C. 170 are safe because Beaufort County has been proactive in paying its share of road projects.

"State Infrastructure Bank money is dedicated to the counties that pay their share," Forrest said. "That money's not going away."

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